zitothebrave
Connoisseur of Minors
This is getting Ugly
FIFA World Cup 2014
- Thread starter The Tariff King
- Start date
NinersSBChamps
<B>Voted Worst Poster <br> 2015 (Co-Winner)</BR>20
Couple questions. First how are the groups determined? Secondly how does Central America and South American region have like 8 teams?
zitothebrave
Connoisseur of Minors
Without getting too indepth. There are 4 pots. First pot are the best teams who I guess you would say won their way to the top and are highly rated. Second pot this year was South America and Africa, third pot was North America and Asia (welp and Australia) last pot is Europe.
Europe is actually far and away the most represented continent. There's actually less Central American teams than African. CONCACAF (North America) Only has USA, Mexico, Costa Rica and Honduras. Africa has Algeria, Camerooon, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria. One could argue that Panama should have made it over Cameroon, and CONCACAF only has 3 guaranteed representatives as Mexico had to playoff against someone to get in.
tomahawkchop10
Gwinnett Bound
That's what I thought too. You could tell it was worse with Jozy out though.
zitothebrave
Connoisseur of Minors
That's the thing. The US totally dominated the game for the first 20 minutes or so, then they lost their outlet. Jozy was huge in his holdup. Even with that the US had the better chances. Ghana had the possession but they didn't get the ball into threatening positions too often. Timmy really only had to make one or 2 big saves which is pretty low for him to be honest.
tomahawkchop10
Gwinnett Bound
So what do you think our chances are against Portugal and Belgium if we meet in the knockouts? I love watching national games but I'll admit I don't know too much about other countries...
Portugal is beat up right now.
Ronaldo may not even be 100% for us which would be huge. They don't have the athleticism that Ghana has so we likely won't have to deal with getting out possessed that badly. I like our chances. Problem is we can't let their injuries play into our game plan. Gotta play them as if they are 100% healthy so we go out guns a blazing.
U-S-A AIN'T NOTHING TO F--- WITH!
I will just defer to the guys in my office who are soccer nuts and they said that USA never dominated that game. Ghana had the ball for what felt like hte whole game. Maybe GF is right and you are just a huge homer.
Possession was 60% to 40% (Ghana to USA)
We had better possession when Altidore was in, once he was out then Johannson would get touches and not know what to do with it, and Dempsey was basically alone up top even with someone playing next to him.
Altidore is basically a screen. Teams will spy on him more closely which frees up Dempsey. Once Altidore is out, teams can focus on Dempsey solely and put more guys on him in the box.
Altidore isn't going to beat 5 guys in the box and force a goal in, but he's definitely going to bully some guys with his frame and allow other guys to sneak in. With Johannson, Ghana wasn't really doubling him nor pressuring him. THey were letting him do what he wanted and he ended up showing everyone he had no clue what he was doing so that meant Ghana could focus more on Dempsey and containing him.
You also have to remember that because we scored so early, Ghana were basically attacking most of the game untilt hey scored to at least tie it up so their possessions were more strategic than ours which our priority at that point wasn't really scoring (especially once Altidore went out), it was keeping them at bay.
It might feel lucky because we escaped so many Ghana scoring opportunities, but you have to remember that Tim Howard is one of the best keepers in the world (despite gilesfan's opinion on the matter). Howard is a beast and he easily saved a bunch of goals with his instinctive play in the box cutting off passes before Ghana's frontline could get a touch on them. So many things he did that were underrated, whereas Mexico's Ochoa stood at the goal line and blocked shots right at him.
We were outclassed on speed which is where Ghana is strong at. They cut off plenty of our passes, and lead passes we tried to execute our guys were not fast enough to sprint to points where Ghana was beating us. We were most effective with our quick 1 touch passes where Ghana didn't have time to chase and settle.
Portugal doesn't have the speed that Ghana has, and their best player likely won't be 100%.
zitothebrave
Connoisseur of Minors
Unless someone on Portugal goes beast mode, we should beat or at worst draw them. Portugal is a strong side, but without their talisman at 100% they're not amazing. Still have concerns because we don't have our outlet player, but at this point Klinsmann has been an amazing coach and always able to adjust. So hopefully we do and we are still a threatening attacking team. Dempsey is still a dangerous man and I think we'll be playing Wondo to start the next match and while he's not anything mroe than a poacher, he's really good at poaching and may grab a goal or 2 by being at the right place at the right time.
Belgium though, I have less faith. I think we lose to them without Jozy. They're too strong, too young and too good.
I've been reading a lot of Klinnsman hate on forums and sports sites and I have no idea why.
I don't think an Arena or Bradley team would have beaten Ghana on Monday.
Klinnsman has given us so much credibility to where other nations take USA soccer serious now whereas before the only hype we had was our own media.
I don't think an Arena or Bradley team would have beaten Ghana on Monday.
Klinnsman has given us so much credibility to where other nations take USA soccer serious now whereas before the only hype we had was our own media.
zitothebrave
Connoisseur of Minors
Nah. The first 20 minutes before Jozy went out Ghana was impotent. They may have possessed the ball more but didn't do anything with it while we had a goal and at least 1 more great chance that Jozy couldn't quite shoot past 2 defenders. I may be forgetting something but I'm not sure. US only gave Ghana a few chances. They scuffed one of them, they converted one of them and Howard made a big save on another. Most of their other chances were half chances. Ghana had the possession but aside from the second half and later parts of the first they weren't a scoring threat. To compare to football imagine you have a team who's marching down the field getting to the 50 and then throwing hail marys while another team has a few good scoring drives and then a bucnh of 3 and outs. It wasn't a convincing win like the Germans had or Croatia had yesterday, but it was a 50/50 game where Ghana had the run of possession and the US had the better chances taken.
Aren't you a huge proponent of TOP in football and is one reason why you believe Ryan is so good?
I don't see what hte difference would be with soccer. If you have the ball more you have a better chance of getting scoring opportunities. Clearly Ghana couldn't convert but the US was barely even close to the Ghanas goalkeeper.
Different sports.
There's no clock stoppage in soccer like there is NFL. An incomplete pass, a reception and run out of bounds, etc.
Soccer the clock never stops, and there's stoppage time.
TOP in football might be more important because the other team has a lower chance of getting the ball back. In soccer the other team could get the ball back instantly, and you could hold the ball theoretically forever in soccer if you just keep passing it. NFL has limits. Can only run the football so much and burn clock. Also when the other team has the ball they're guaranteed to burn at least 3-5 minutes off the clock assuming you don't use any timeouts, unless they just throw 3 incomplete passes.
Solid rebuttal. Thanks.
Also, in soccer you have more chances for quick strike goals than you do in football.
USA could run the ball down the field, earn a corner kick, and then score off the corner kick (like the Brooks goal).
In NFL you have to get a return TD or a 90 yard run/td pass to get something that quick. Also, there are no half points like field goals are almost like half touchdowns in football.
USA could run the ball down the field, earn a corner kick, and then score off the corner kick (like the Brooks goal).
In NFL you have to get a return TD or a 90 yard run/td pass to get something that quick. Also, there are no half points like field goals are almost like half touchdowns in football.
acesfull86
Well-known member
I'm with Zito...I don't know if I'd say the USA dominated the first 15-20 minutes, but I thought they were certainly the better side. As soon as Jozy went out, the tide turned. I think it was also Ghana finding a rhythm, which probably would have happened even without the injury, but not having his hold up play took away our outlet. Dempsey playing through the broken nose didn't help either.
As for Spain, I feel like the analysis I've been reading has been a bit harsh. I don't think these two games are an indictment on their style of play or the guys they have. They played two very good sides and got undressed, but I'm not ready to write their obituary. They have a couple of older guys who may be finished (Casillas), but they have younger players like Costa who they haven't fully integrated yet. I wouldn't be surprised if they win Euro 16.
I usually think this sort of stuff is overrated, but I wonder how much they missed Puyol from a leadership standpoint.
As for Spain, I feel like the analysis I've been reading has been a bit harsh. I don't think these two games are an indictment on their style of play or the guys they have. They played two very good sides and got undressed, but I'm not ready to write their obituary. They have a couple of older guys who may be finished (Casillas), but they have younger players like Costa who they haven't fully integrated yet. I wouldn't be surprised if they win Euro 16.
I usually think this sort of stuff is overrated, but I wonder how much they missed Puyol from a leadership standpoint.
That doesn't mean he's good.